It's not you, it's...your fitness routine? Why Fitness Routines Fail

Have you ever excitedly jumped into a new workout routine, just to disappointedly find yourself right back where you started?

Maybe you aren’t losing weight, or you just completely fell off track.

Some common pitfalls exist which can cause your workout routine to fail, and the better you can become at identifying them, the better you can become at preventing them!

Overtraining

It’s normal to want to achieve your fitness goal as quickly as possible, but please recognize that you need to give yourself time to get there. If you overtrain, you may actually set yourself back. Overtraining can include working out for too long or too frequently, lifting too much weight, and running too far or too fast. Signs of overtraining can include overall pain (more than the soreness that comes from a healthy workout)n and chronic injury.

Undertraining

Avoiding lifting heavier weights because you fear getting bulky can hinder your progress. In order to become bulky, you’d probably have to lift super heavy, follow a special diet, and even perhaps take certain supplements.

Not pushing yourself enough when you’re in the cardio room because you’re chatting with friends. Having good social relationships is also important to our overall health, but if you’re not moving fast enough to get your heart rate up, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

Lacking Variety

Overtime, our bodies adjust to our workout routines, and eventually, they can and will plateau. If you do the same thing over and over again, you will eventually stop making much, if any, progress. Our bodies need new challenges to grow.

Missing Fun

If you don’t like it, you’re likely to have a tough time sticking with it and are more likely to fall off track.

No Set Goals

Achievement provides positive reinforcement that helps us continue to workout. If you have no set goals, nothing to really work towards, how will you be able to measure your progress and reward yourself?

No Set Plan

Similar to no set goals, if you don’t have a set plan for when you’re going to workout and what you’re going to do at each workout, you’ll be more likely to skip because life will get in the way.

Bad Nutrition

You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. No matter how much you workout, if you’re diet doesn’t match your gym hustle, you probably won’t make nearly as much progress as you could if you were fueling your body with proper nutrition.

Not Being Realistic

Working out for 2.5 hours 5 days/week may work for you in the short-term, but is it really going to be sustainable long term? Also, consider your nutrition: Is it attainable to expect yourself to eat nutritious food 100% of the time?

The next time you establish a new fitness routine for yourself, keep these common pitfalls in mine. For tips on how to avoid these common pitfalls and develop a fitness routine that sticks, be sure to join our tribe so that you can access the Members-only training video!